New School, New Friends, New Life
by 4llamas
Summary: High school AU! After terrifying events occurred at his old school, Matthew moves to America for a new and better life. At Hetalia High he meets quirky and fun friends, and he meets Gilbert; a strange albino who has the tendency to make Matthew forget his stutter. When his troubled past becomes present, will his friends be there for him? Or will he go through it alone?


Matthew POV:

The trees bristled and swayed in time with the wind in a confusing, elegant dance. The sun played a part in the beautiful scenery by tinting the leaves, making them shine. When standing under the trees and looking up, one would notice how the leaves seemed to resemble angels or fairies by the way they fluttered in the breeze and shone with an otherworldly glow.

Matthew noticed this as he walked down the sidewalk to his school, Hetalia High. He has heard many good things about the school, like how many kids graduate with advanced diplomas and how the school has many extra curricular activities.

But he also heard that the school was known for having a small, but widely known "reckless group". They are apparently the "soul cause" for all the schools' problems, including spray painting the walls, taking the nails out of all the doors, dumping glue on the windows, hacking the school website and making it say that school was out for the rest of the year, etc. And all that was just within the school itself. They also cause stuff like that all over the town.

The worse(coolest) part about all of this is that they have _never _been caught. Matthew was nervous going to a school with famous pranksters, especially with what happened at his old school.

The school year was two months in, and already Matthew is being transferred to Hetalia High. At his old school, he had a run in with a not-so-pleasant person. It had put him in a stressful and life threatening situation that he would rather not think about.

Therefore, today was his first day at Hetalia High and Matthew was going to make the best of it!

* * *

><p>Matthew entered the doors to his new High School and took in his surroundings. The walls are painted a light blue and the lockers that lined the walls are white. Students gathered into groups as they walked down the narrow school halls, talking animatedly with each other.<p>

Matthew checked his schedule, he had only four classes a day and lunch for forty-five minutes. His first class is chemistry with a teacher named Mr. Bolding. As he walked down the hallway looking for the chemistry hall, he ran into someone.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Matthew said as he turned towards the stranger. He stopped and confused excitement washed over him. A smile spread on his face. The other boy tumbled a bit but straightened up fast. Bright blue eyes lifted to his darker blue ones. "What was tha-" the other said but stopped mid-sentence once realization dawned on the blond.

Matthew stood there smiling at his half-brother, Alfred, whom he hadn't known went to Hetalia High. Alfred ran up to Matthew and engulfed him in a bear hug. "Dude! What are you doing here?" Alfred hopped on his two feet, still holding on to a choking Matthew.

Matthew choked out a "Help" and Alfred let the smaller boy down. "Sorry." Alfred said sheepishly. "But seriously though, this is crazy! What are you doing here?" His smile spread from eye to eye in a bright grin and Matthew couldn't help but reflect his brother's smile.

"I moved. I didn't know you went here." Matthew said. Alfred nodded in understanding, smile never falling off his face.

Alfred and Matthew shared the same dad who had left both of their mothers shortly after each birth. Both of their moms looked similar so most people mistook them for being twins. As babies, their mothers helped the other with financial problems, babysitting, and basically anything else until Alfred's mom found another man who actually loved her and her son. Matthew's mom left for Canada shortly after. Ever since, Matthew and Alfred have stayed connected through phone calls, video chat and email. Every holiday they sent each other presents and almost every Christmas, they got together and celebrated the holiday.

"So do you need help finding your first class?" Alfred offered. Matthew was about to say yes when the school bell rung. "Oh man." Alfred sighed and whipped his book bag around. He pulled out a slip of paper and took Matthew's schedule from his hand. "Look, I can't be late for math again or I get detention for a whole week. I circled your first two classes on this map. I have the same lunch period as you so find me in the cafeteria and I'll tell you where the rest of your classes are, okay?"

The words rushed out of Alfred's mouth like a speeding waterfall and Matthew wasn't sure he heard everything he had said. But he nodded anyways and Alfred smiled and left. Matthew stood there looking at the small map and the circles that Alfred had drawn on it.

Matthew headed toward one of the areas indicated on the map. His eyes searched the room numbers and he grew steadily more cautious as the hallways slowly cleared. The map Alfred gave him was terrible and Matthew realized that soon everyone would be in their class and he would still be lost!

When only a few people remained in the hallway, Matthew decided it would be best to get a pass at the office. Then he wouldn't be late for his first class. When Matthew turned around to head to the front office, he once again, bumped into somebody. With an "oof", Matthew fell to the floor, his glasses tossed to the side like a rag doll.

The other person veered to the side and caught himself on the wall. Matthew spewed apologies as he searched blindly for his fallen glasses. Blurry white and red spots moved about in front of his face. Then, like magic, the white spots morphed into choppy, messy hair and the red spots became glowing crimson eyes.

Matthew blinked a few times, getting his eyes used to the clear vision again. Matthew smiled shyly up at the mysterious stranger who was getting up from a kneeling position. The boy was wearing the school uniform, along with a black cross necklace that hung proudly from his neck.

"I am so sorry about that, I-I don't know what's wrong with m-me today. Y-your the second person that I r-ran into today." Matthew explained. His stutter was annoying, he thought he had gotten over stuttering, but ever since the incident at his old school, his old habit came back. The only times he didn't stutter was when he was around people he considered family. That was a small group, consisting of only his mom, Alfred, and Alfred's mom.

The stranger snickered as he adjusted his messenger bag. When he looked up at Matthew, he had a large grin on his face.

Matthew stood up to and smiled apologetically, growing more confused at the other boy. "What are y-you laughing at?" Matthew fixed his hair and glasses thinking it was his appearance that was causing the boy to giggle.

"You ran into two people today? Wow, you are a very clumsy bird." Matthew tilted his head in confusion. _Did he just call me a bird?_

Matthew tossed his confusion aside. "My name is Matthew Williams, w-who are you?"

The other's laughing stopped and he wore a baffled expression. "How do you not know who I am? I am the awesome Gilbert Beilschmidt!" Gilbert stood in a heroic pose, very similar to Alfred's and that got Matthew laughing. The sound distracted Gilbert from his pose and he focused his attention on the giggling Matthew. "What are you laughing at?" Gilbert said, getting defensive.

Matthew smiled as an answer, opting not to tell him that he looked like his obnoxious older brother. "It's nice to meet you Gilbert. I'm new here so I guess that's why I'm only just now meeting you."

Gilbert gave him a strange look, as if something clicked inside of him. However that strange look was quickly replaced by a smirk. "So you lost, newbie?" Matthew nodded.

Gilbert led Matthew to his first class after learning what said class was. Matthew turned at the door and thanked his new-found friend.

"I'll see you in lunch Birdie." Gilbert smiled and walked down to his first class. Matthew waved goodbye to Gilbert and shyly stepped into Mr. Bolding's Chemistry class right before the bell rung.

The class was loud and nobody noticed Matthew as he crossed the front of the classroom to the teacher's desk. Mr. Bolding was an elderly man and he just nodded as Matthew stated who he was.

"Have a seat there, please. Welcome to Hetalia." Mr. Bolding said in a gravelly old voice.

Matthew took his seat at the back of the class, as directed, and looked around. To Matthew's right, a boy sat with curly brown hair and tanned skin. He was chewing on a tomato and talking to a boy with a strange curl protruding out of his hair. The boy with the strange curl was spewing curses at the happy tomato boy.

"Aww, but Lovi you always let me play with your-" "Shut up! Don't say things like that in school. It's embarrassing. And Stupid! You dumb Tomato Bast-" The happy boy caught Lovi in a hug. "You are so cute when your embarrassed! You look like a tomato!" The boy cooed. As Lovi's head was being burrowed into the shoulder of the other, a small smile broke his grumpy face.

Matthew turned away from the adorable scene, feeling like a creeper.

Class was starting and Matthew pulled out a stack of paper and a pencil. The tomato boy tapped his shoulder, gaining Matthew's attention. "Hola Amigo! Do you mind if we borrow some pencils and paper? I forgot everything at home because I woke up late." The boy smiled sheepishly at Matthew.

"No problem, anytime. My n-name is Mathew Williams. I-I'm new." Matthew handed the two boys some paper and each a pencil. The happy boy thanked Matthew for the supplies gratefully. "My name is Antonio Carriedo and this is Lovino Vargas. Welcome to Hetalia, amigo!"

Matthew remembered that amigo means a friend in Spanish, and smiled happily. "It's nice to m-meet you two."

The three boys hushed as Mr. Bolding started his lesson for the day. The complicated math equations were easy for Matthew and soon, he had finished his work. He sat still, thinking of ways to occupy himself. The whole room was quiet as they worked on the problems. Silently Matthew pulled out a book and turned to his saved place. A bright blue polar bear bookmark held his spot, and Matthew grinned.

A dark-haired boy who sat on Matthew's right, had also finished his work and was pulling out a book of his own. The boy tapped Matthew's shoulder to get his attention. When Matthew looked over, he saw the boy had a small smile on his face. He lifted up an adorable brown dog bookmark from the same company that made Matthew's bookmark. Matthew smiled and wrote on the corner of his paper, _I'm Matthew._

The boy copied Matthew by writing his name on the corner of his paper. He simply wrote _Kiku Honda._ Both smiled politely and returned to the exciting adventures in their books.

At the end of class, Antonio and Lovino handed Matthew the pencils. "Oh no I-It's okay, you can k-keep them." Lovino spoke for the first time to Matthew, "But why? Don't you need them?" He fixed a grumpy glare at Matthew that made him slightly uncomfortable. "No. Besides, You s-said that you d-didn't have anything with you today, so y-you'll be needing them later, r-right?"

Lovino blushed and quickly said, "whatever" as he walked to the door. "He means thank you. And I also mean thank you when I say that your un bueno amigo. Adios! See you later Matthew!" Antonio ran up to a waiting Lovino's side and they walked out of class together, all the while Lovino is chastising Antonio for making him wait.

Kiku seemed to have waited for Matthew to finish talking because when Matthew turned to collect his supplies, Kiku was standing next to his chair still.

"Hello Matthew. It's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Kiku Honda." Kiku had a strong Japanese accent and was very polite. "Hello, eh. Nice t-to meet you. I'm Matthew Williams. I saw that you have a bookmark similar to mine. D-do you like to r-read?"

It seemed like a stupid question, but Matthew was running out of things to say. They walked and talked the whole way to the door, not wanting to waste time and risk being late for their next class. "I love reading books. You like polar bears?" Matthew nodded and stopped at the doorway. "Do you mind pointing me to my next class? My brother gave me these directions, but I can't make sense of them." Kiku nodded and Matthew handed him his schedule. Kiku explained how to navigate the school and drew a better map. One that was legible.

Matthew thanked Kiku and they said their goodbyes. Matthew turned, still looking at his new map and almost ran into somebody again. Matthew looked up about to apologize when he saw two familiar red orbs staring back at him. Gilbert was leaning against the wall with a smirk on his face.

"O-oh, It's just you. What are y-you doing here?" "Hello Birdy. Just came to see if you needed help to your next class. But then I saw you making friends and get directions yourself." Gilbert held a teasing tone and Matthew, without thinking played along. "Is that all you came here for, or are you really that nice of a person? Because no one is _that_ nice." Matthew walked around the slightly stunned albino in the direction of his next class. Gilbert caught up to Matthew and walked along side him.

"Of course I'm that nice of a person, I'm awesome." Matthew smiled to himself and replied with a disbelieving "uh huh." Gilbert gasped, catching on to Matthew's game. "In fact, I will walk you down there myself. Because I want to. Because I. Am. Awesome!"

"Sure you are." Matthew said. Gilbert laughed and suddenly, Matthew was lifted into Gilbert's arms. "If you don't believe me, then I will have to prove it by carrying you to your next class." Shock and fear invaded Matthew's senses and Matthew fell silent. He clutched on to Gilbert's neck and tears brimmed the corners of his eyes. He held his breath as he looked at the ground that was so far below him.

Gilbert looked over to Matthew's face to find him slightly green. Quickly, Gilbert carefully set his legs down on the ground but Matthew never let go of his neck. Gilbert called to Matthew, but no sound was being heard as Matthew counted to three over and over again in his head. Images of the past two months flooded his mind, and Matthew thought that he was back. Back at his old school. Back to _him_. Back to that terrifying and painful time.

As if waking from a dream, sounds and light washed back to him like a current. The bad memories residing into the back of his mind while the now flooded into his senses. Gilbert was calling his name in an empty hallway. His worried, red eyes searched Matthew's face for answers that he wasn't willing to give. Gilbert's pale, warm hands grasped at his face trying to wake him, and once his eyes cracked open, the hands moved away.

Matthew found that he was lying on the floor against a locker with Gilbert kneeling at his side. "What happened?" Matthew asked.

Gilbert sighed, relieved that Matthew was okay. "You scared the Scheiße out of me! Do. Not. Do. That. Again." Gilbert spoke slowly and clearly, making sure he got his point across.

Matthew nodded and moved to get up. Gilbert saw this and jumped up. He extended his arm and Matthew used it to pull himself up easier. Gilbert gave a little tug helping Matthew up to a standing position next to his new-found friend.

"What happened? Was my awesomeness too powerful for you?" Gilbert asked seriously. Matthew looked up at his concerned crimson eyes and giggled. Gilbert really had _that _much ego.

Gilbert suggested that Matthew get checked out by the nurse, but he refused to visit her, especially on his first day of school!

Matthew and Gilbert parted ways reluctantly and each went to their separate classes. Once Matthew arrived at his English class, he used the excuse of getting lost on his first day so that he wouldn't get into trouble. As Matthew took his seat, he wondered what excuse Gilbert used to get out of punishment. _I hope he is okay and that I didn't get him in trouble!_ Matthew thought worriedly.

As Matthew fretted over this, he felt a strange tickling sensation on his right ear lobe. "Hello, mon chère. Quelle est une jolie fleur comme vous fait dans un endroit comme celui-ci?"

* * *

><p><strong>Okay! I finished my first chapter! If you have read it this far then you are an amazing trooper. Hopefully you have enjoyed it so far and comments, questions, critiques are all helpful and will be great encouragement for any future stories. Thanks for taking the time out of your day to read this and I will have the next chapter up soon.<strong>

**Translations: (I used Google Translate for most of these so if they are wrong, please tell me how to fix it. I appreciate it. XD)**

**Scheiße- Crap**

**mon chère- My darling**

**Quelle est une jolie fleur comme vous fait dans un endroit comme celui-ci?- What is a pretty flower like you doing in a place like this?**

**Hola Amigo- Hello friend**

**un bueno amigo- a good friend**

**Adios- goodbye**

**Once again, Thank You so much for reading!**


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